When We Were Little
by doodleswriter357
Summary: Collection of short stories chronicling the adventures of Sam and Artie as childhood friends.
1. Superheroes

**AN: And it is Sartie week once again! Each chapter will be for a different day of the week, and the stories will connect to one another. Also, this is an AU in which Sam and Artie are childhood friends.**

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"Nananananananana BATMAN!" Sam screamed as he ran down the hallway of the Abrams' home, a bed sheet flapping behind him. Halfway down the hall he stopped running and slid the rest of the way on the laminated floor in his socks. Reaching Artie's bedroom at the end of the hall, he ran in and jumped on the bed. Not very far behind him was Artie who similarly had a bed sheet tied around his neck. The other boy leapt much like Sam had and landed on the bed next to him. The two boys were consumed with laughter as they tried to catch their breath.

Artie was the first one to jump up. "Quick, we have to save the people in the city from the evil monster!" He took off down the hall with Sam on his heels. Thundering down the stairs, they dashed toward the living room where the fort they had built earlier was still set up. Between the two of them, they had amassed enough G.I. Joe figurines that they could have filled a small city. A gigantic stuffed bear represented the "monster" that was attacking the people.

With a yell, Artie launched himself at the bear, knocking it off the sofa. Sam joined him with punching the stuffed animal until they declared it "beaten." In the process they had knocked over half the G.I. Joes, which they deemed as casualties in the attack. After they put the bear back in Artie's sister's room so she wouldn't notice it missing when she got home, they tried to figure out what they would do next. They knew they were absolutely not allowed to try jumping off the roof and seeing if they could fly. The first time they had that idea, both sets of parents had to sit down with them and go over the rules for playing superheroes: and the first rule was that they couldn't jump off anything that was taller than themselves.

Eventually they just decided to do the running-down-the-hallway-and-sliding technique that they had previously perfected. Artie's mother said it would be all right as long as they didn't shout too much. The first couple of runs through went fine, but on one of Artie's turns, he tripped over his own feet and slammed his knee against the doorframe. Pulling his knee close to his chest, he curled up in a ball and tried his hardest not to cry despite the shooting pain. Sam immediately ran over to his friend when he saw him fall.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked, trying to get a look at Artie's face. The other boy had tucked his head down so Sam couldn't see him trying not to cry. A shake of the head and a slight sniffle is all Sam got as a reply. He knew Artie was pretty stubborn about people helping him with stuff and didn't like people to think he was weak. After being Artie's friend for a couple of years, he knew the best way to handle this. Gently but firmly, he pried Artie's hand away from his knee to look at it. It was red but there was no blood so he figured that his friend would be fine.

"Do you want me to kiss it better?" Sam asked in all seriousness. This was enough to make Artie pull his head up and give Sam a weird look.

"Are you a superhero or my mom?" Artie asked.

"My dad sometimes says that my mom is a superhero," Sam replied. "So it should work."

Before Artie could protest, he bent down and gave the other boy's knee a swift kiss. Artie let out a little giggle and pretty soon both boys were laughing hard at the situation. They were interrupted by Artie's mom calling them down for lunch. Sam helped Artie stand up and straightened his cape for him. Artie flashed his friend a small smile in gratitude.

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_Feedback is much appreciated as always._


	2. Farmers

**_AU in which Sam and Artie were childhood friends._**

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Sam and Artie were sitting at the Abrams' kitchen table, eating the mac n' cheese that Mrs. Abrams had prepared for them. They had spent the day playing together, which included making a fort, running around the house with sheets tied around their necks, pretending to be superheroes, and having an epic showdown between members of their collections of G.I. Joe figurines. Now they were trying to come up with something else to do, since Pokémon didn't come on TV until three in the afternoon.

They were discussing the idea of building a go-cart when Sam pointed out the window and asked,

"What's that?"

He was pointing at a patch of earth in the backyard that had been dug up.

"Oh, my mom was going to start a garden," Artie said with a shrug. "She hasn't planted anything yet."

"We should plant it then!" Sam said excitedly. "We could pretend to be farmers!"

"Yeah," Artie replied, the idea growing on him. "We can grow our own food and then eat it in our fort!"

The two then started on what food they were going to plant, who would get to do the digging, and if they should make a trap to catch rabbits in so they didn't get at the plants. They were so engrossed in their plans that they didn't notice that Artie's mom had come back into the kitchen and was listening to their conversation with a smile on her face.

"Shouldn't you ask permission first?" she interrupted. Artie considered this for a second before running over to his mother and started jumping up and down.

"Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplea seplease can we do it?" he chanted. From his seat, Sam nodded vigorously in agreement.

"I suppose," Mrs. Abrams replied with a smile.

She spent the next few minutes going over the basics with the boys; how deep to dig the hole, how many seeds to put in, and making sure they didn't plant anything too close together. Artie dug two pairs of overalls out of his closet and the boys donned them in order to feel and look like "real farmers."

They spent the next couple of hours carefully digging holes and dropping seeds inside them. Once they were done, they argued for a few minutes about who would get to water them before agreeing that they would each water one side of the garden. Last but not least, they made foolproof rabbit trap using a bucket and a couple of sticks.

By this point, they were both covered in dirt, grass, and water, but Mrs. Abrams had them stand in front of their garden together for a picture. After that though, she made them wash up before they were able to go back into the living room to watch their TV show.

Artie rushed out to check on the plants the next morning and was disappointed to see that nothing had happened. His parents assured him that it would take some time. On the days that Sam came over, the two would sit outside by their garden and talk about what they were going to do once their plants were grown. They agreed that they would eat the biggest and best ones, and would sell the rest of them. Sam was confident that if they set up a stand, they would get more customers than Rachel Berry down the road ever did with her lemonade stand.

As the summer progressed, the plants did start to poke through, much to the excitement of the boys. They still spent a lot of time outside, although they weren't constantly sitting by and keeping watch over their plants. They would often eat lunch out there though, and continue their discussions. Sam had very seriously decided to come up with prices for all their goods and the boys drew up plans accordingly. On one afternoon they had somehow come to the decision that when they got older they would have a farm together.

"We don't hafta go to college," Sam said through bites of his sandwich. "We can start our own farm and sell food and make lots of money. Everyone needs to eat so we'll make tons and tons of money."

"And we can have cows and pigs and chickens," Artie chimed in. "And horses! We can learn how to ride horses and then race them!"

As the summer drew to an end, the plants had finally grown to their full potential and the boys very excitedly were able to pick them. Much like they had planned, they set up a stand at the end of Artie's driveway and were open for business. They didn't attract as much attention as they had thought, but there was an elderly couple that bought almost all their tomatoes and left a decent sized tip so they didn't complain too much.

With school looming much too near, they made a promise that they would plant a garden together every year until they were old enough to have that farm together like they planned.

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_Feedback is much appreciated as always._


	3. Pirates

**_AU in which Artie and Sam were childhood friends_**

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If nothing else, Artie and Sam have seemingly endless ideas when it comes to playing pretend. They've already run through most possible careers, although they're still determined to be farmers once they grow up. However, once they got through most of the standard ones (Sam learned he won't make a good teacher because he doesn't like apples and Artie wouldn't be a very good firefighter because he doesn't know how to screw the nozzle on the hose and got a face full of water) they've moved onto more dubious ideas.

"Pirates!" Sam exclaims. "We can sail the seven seas and steal other people's treasure!"

"Can I have a parrot?" Artie asked. "I want to teach him how to sing Michael Jackson songs."

"Sure," Sam agreed. "As long as I can wear the eye patch."

Once they got the important details out of the way, they set about making their pirate ship. Sam's backyard didn't have much in the way of materials that could be used to sail the seven seas as the boys put it. Eventually, Artie had the idea to pull one of the Evans's sleds out of the back of the garage. They tied one of Sam's t-shirts to a long stick found in the yard and one of them held onto it while the other steered the ship.

The S.S. Sartie (_as they dubbed their ship because they couldn't agree on naming it after only one of them_) set sail on smooth waters. The first leg of the journey was easy, and the two pirates spent time enjoying the view. The first island they came across had no people living on it, but plenty of palm trees with coconuts (_basketballs_) on it. They took some aboard because they knew they'd get hungry on their long journey. The second island had wild animals on it that needed to be fought off (_or the two boys waving sticks at the family cat who was curled up right next to the screen door inside the house and didn't even look up when the two were right in front of her_).

Then came the gigantic tropical storm (Sam's mother willingly spraying them with the hose while they rocked the sled back and forth) that caused them to both fall overboard at one point or another and have to rescue the other (_or pushing the sled down a hill and one of them falling off halfway down_). The next island they landed on had a vicious inhabitant who they had to fight off in order to take their treasure (_or Sam's father who came out with a plate of cookies for the boys when he got off of work_).

Satisfied with a successful day of adventures and pirating, the two put their ship back in the garage and shook hands on their excellent victory of obtaining the valuable treasure.

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_Feedback is much appreciated as always._


End file.
